Civic Arena
Long Beach
from Empress Valley Supreme Disc EVSD 523-525 Silvers
Very good soundboard.
This show has been circulating as a very good audience recording for a while, thanks to the efforts by the legendary Mike Millard (click here). Now Empress Valley has unveiled a soundboard recording of the show.
This is what the Underground Uprising Led Zeppelin website (www.uuweb.led-zeppelin.us) noted:
“While an excellent audience recording may better capture how the band overall was actually heard in the venue, a soundboard recording better captures how the band members did perform (and enjoy or struggle) on stage. The rule also applies to this release. For instance, it more clearly and vividly captures how Bonzo played his drum kits and yelled on stage.
“Although the tape is slightly distorted at the beginning, there is no noticeable hiss noise in the new soundboard, except that there is a very noticeable digital error at the end of Moby Dick. Accordingly, it could overall be deemed as one of the best and most well-balanced soundboard recordings from the band’s ‘75 shows. (Incidentally, in this title, EV elected to use the Millard tape at the beginning of CD1 in order especially to include the famous exciting opening announcement of “The American Return of Led Zeppelin!”.)
“In the latter half of the show, the band in fact played very well, even better than on 12 March [click here] in some places. For instance, Dazed And Confused is spectacular from ‘75 standard and Stairway To Heaven is flawless and gutsy. Jimmy also played better in the funcky section in Whole Lotta Love than on the following day.”